3-Social-Behavioural Challenges

Transcript

Namaste friends. We have so far learnt about the benefits of conservation agriculture like how it is less costly, produces more yield, saves time, water and labor. In addition to these, it is also proven that conservation agriculture is environment friendly.

But a question still remains is that despite being so beneficial, why is conservation agriculture not adopted at the rate it should have been. In a social system, why have we not able to achieve the take off point? By takeoff point we mean that any technology, once it is adopted by around 10% to 15% then this technology need not be pushed. Farmers by themselves communicate with each other and adopt this technique.

Some intriguing question that arouses our interest is that if a farmer has 10 acres of farm then why does he do conservation agriculture only in 2 or 3 acres and not in the entire 10 acres. Also, we are pushing the adoption of conservation agriculture but why are farmers not coming by themselves and asking about conservation agriculture and its adoption.

To answer these questions, we would have to understand the adoption process which is a very complex process. The decision making process of people and their behavior is very complex.

If we look at the adoption process, we see that there is a farmer who adopts a technology. Now according to Rogers, this technology should have 5 characteristics i.e. relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability and observability.

Also there is the communication channel or change agent through which our technique is reaching the farmers. It is a social system where the farmer is not alone. There are other people who are influencing his decision.

We know that farmers or anyone else take rational decisions on the basis of information and money available to them. This is called the bounded rationality model.

Now today, we will talk about something that is in addition to the above factors. Besides, age and education of the farmer and technology, there are many more components that influence the adoption process.

We are for the first time going to look into behaviour economics in Eastern Gangetic Plains and aim to find answers about why despite technology being beneficial, people are not adopting it at the desired speed.

From our research, we have found that in addition to providing reminders or nudges to someone, we should also organize demonstrations. Farmers always want to see something first and then trust it. So we just don’t have to push the technology but also organize demonstrations or trials.

I want to share a real life example. We were working in Purnea district and I asked a farmer who is considered a large cultivator about why he did not adopt this technique when we initially  started it. His reply was he first wanted to observe it. The field technician would always tell him to come to the trial demonstration plot but he first wanted to try it in a small area and see the result. After finding it is beneficial, he increased the area. So basically, continuous reminders are very important.

Also, we have to understand that while promoting zero tillage, we are telling farmers in a way to not do something that they have been doing since generations i.e. tilling. So we have to share the message with farmers in such a way that they can understand us and adopt this new technology.

Farmers live in a social system and are not alone. They have a family with certain social norms and influences.

I want to share another interesting story with you all. On many occasions, we used to organize a focus group discussion with farmers after crop harvest. We would invite farmers who have adopted conservation agriculture and also those who have not adopted it. The farmers who have adopted conservation agriculture would share the benefits of it and then we would ask those farmers who have not adopted conservation agriculture about why they have not tried it as their neighbors are benefitting from it. So under peer pressure, they would say that they would do it from now and eventually they would actually do it. So we can keep these things in mind while designing the adoption or diffusion process.

Now 90% of the farmers in EGP are small cultivators. If due to some reason their crop fails, then their livelihood will be affected. So they are risk / loss averse. If you tell them to invest 1 rupees promising 2 rupees in return, then they still won’t do it. They want to keep doing what they are doing as it is well proven. So you have to instill trust in them that your technology is beneficial and that they are not going to incur any loss because of it.

According to us, many times farmers behave irrationally like whenever we talk to farmers about any new technique, the first thing they ask us is how much more yield can it generate. Seldom, we meet farmers who take into consideration their cost of cultivation. With this technology, we can only get 5to 10 % better yield but there is a lot of cost savings. So many times the adoption of this new technology is not as rapid as we want it to be because farmers concentrate mostly on yield. We have to design our message in such a way that farmers also look into the cost aspect of their cultivation.

For this, there is a dual system theory which says that people make decisions according to system 1 and system 2. The quick decisions that we make without much deliberation like farmers rejecting a technology straight away without much thought will fall under system 1. But system 2 are decisions taken after much thought and deliberation. So we have to bring farmers towards system 2 by making them realize the benefits of this technology.

We have also met farmers who are very inquisitive and ready to adopt new techniques and technology and they want to go to the bottom of things to know what they can do.

Another interesting fact that we discovered during our research was that some farmers initially were not getting very good yield so we asked the farmers the reason for not rejecting this technique when it was not giving the desired results. The farmers told us that they were very happy that scientists and experts from abroad would come to their farm. They would tell others about these visits of foreigners to their farm. This is the reason why we wanted to try it for longer and give it a chance. So recognition also helps in diffusion of technology.

The technology is environment friendly as well. There is also an altruistic side of people. Do you think farmers are concerned about the way they are exploiting their soil and farm? Or if they keep using excess water then water resources would deplete. Or providing more chemical fertilizers is polluting our environment. Do you think farmers care about these things? If they don’t then this is our responsibility to make them think about these things. We have to design a message in such a way that farmers think about these things and also adopt our technique.

This subject of behavioral economics is still an ongoing research and we are doing more research on this subject. In the coming time, we will share the scientific based results of any such findings with you. This is a very interesting area of research where a lot of faculty members and researchers can do research on this and better understand the adoption process of a technique.

Thank you.